The Newsroom

I don't see a thread here on this show, so I have no idea if anyone here is watching it. It is one of 2 or 3 shows that are "appointment television" for me.

Writer/creator Aaron Sorkin gets a lot of flack in the reviews,and is rightfully accused of using a lot of tropes. The show is also interpreted by those leaning right as leaning left, maybe not as rightfully. And I can't disagree that yes, no one talks like this in real life, and yes, the love triangles are pretty ridiculous and boring.

But if you get past all of that, most of which is still pretty clever and entertaining, to the meat of the story, I honestly can't find anything better than this show. Last night's "Red Team III" episode completely knocked it out of the park. I don't want to sound too hyperbolic, but honestly I have not experienced television written this well since, well since Aaron Sorking stopped writing scripts for The West Wing a decade ago. And that includes every single episode of five seasons of The Good Wife, which I still say is the best-written series we have ever been blessed with.

If you have seen The Social Network, or Sports Night (reruns of which are about to begin), or even the ill-fated Studio 60, you probably have an idea how good this guy is. He may have some idiosyncracies that disturb others (and most who complain about him are writers that are jealous that they don't have anywhere near that amount of talent), but this guy can write circles around anybody. the guy is a national treasure.

Yeah, the characters talk in a way we WISHED we did (no "uh" or "ummm" or anything like that) but episodes like last night are the reason I'm glued to the set. I did NOT see the "twist" coming, and I usually know at least that there's a setup coming even if I don't call the twist correctly.

I haven't been keeping up with the show as much when it debut, but the news is not the center point of the story, because we already know what happens and the outcome. We see the characters and their rapid fire dialogue. It's a good summer show. A lot of drama at times, but it is still good. I'm like 4 back. I need to catch up soon.

Yeah, the characters talk in a way we WISHED we did (no "uh" or "ummm" or anything like that) but episodes like last night are the reason I'm glued to the set.

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The benefit of being a scripted show instead of real life is the ability to script perfection. Even with imperfect characters.

djlong said:

I did NOT see the "twist" coming, and I usually know at least that there's a setup coming even if I don't call the twist correctly.

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There was a slight tip of the hand early in the episode when the lawyers asked is Will's source was the same as Charlie's. It was dismissed as "it didn't matter". But one by one the sources fell away. Until none were left.

The discussion of the clocks on the footbsll game was a good scene. Intelligent details and a good setup for later.

They did screw up one bit of continuity. Early on just after the CIA guy's interview Mac tells Evil Temp Prod guy (whatever his name is) "I want to look at the raw footage!" It is never referred to again. Then much later after the scandal breaks she says the exact same thing and immediately finds the edit. Oops.

Did Olivia Munn walk into the role of a lifetime or what?? She's going to become for Sorkin what Rebecca Pidgeon was for Mamet (minus the sex, probably).

To anybody oriented to video editing as Mac is, that chop edit in its raw form was the equivalent of an earthquake, massively obvious. And of course there would have been a shift seen on the guy, nobody holds perfectly still. It's one of those things they figured they could get away with given their laymen audience, not so vid pros. Not even close.

You'd never get away with an audio edit-only either. The lip flap wouldn't match. Pros can spot that a mile away.

I was prepared not to like her, but only because I was a loyal G4 watcher before it was G4, back when it was a true tech network. Olivia was seemingly brought in as attractive "talent" because when men saw her they stopped changing the channel no matter what might have been coming out of her mouth, but to regular viewers she seemed to be more of an interloper.

I think it might have been her first actual non-local TV job. And they gave her ditsy things to say, which was all part of the astoundingly douche-chilling collapse of Tech TV which was like watching a three-train train wreck in super-slow motion. So I was preconditioned to not like her. Not her fault, and she has definitely won me over since then and since that inane sitcom she was in for about 6 eps a couple years ago, and proved here that she is a lot more than just unbelievably gorgeous, which she is. Part Vietnamese, IIRC. Whatever, it works.

And I agree, Sloan gets the best lines and is probably my favorite character, or at least the one I would like the most if I knew all of them in real life. Many of the other characters are just not all that likable.

BTW, don't know about anyone else but I hate how they changed the opening theme music.

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I was not aware there was a change, but OK. If one of the knocks against your show is that it is leftist and elitist and pretentious and that the characters are all full of themselves (which is hard to argue against), it seems like the absolute wrong move to have a super-pretentious theme introducing it. So yeah, thumbs down on that, and thank the lord for FFWD.